ACT THREE
FADE IN:
37 MONTAGE
A confusing mish-mash of images swirling around each other, double exposed and wispy, dreamlike...
-- the destroyed Breen bridge, as JEM’HADAR SOLDIERS beam in using Dominion transporters, and immediately move to restrain the dazed, injured Breen and their Romulan guest
-- A bright sunny day on a golden desert planet. Our POV plays happily in the sand, bifurcated alien HANDS running through the grains while an alien child’s LAUGHTER rings
-- Inside the Breen suit, as the green outlines of multiple Jem’Hadar soldiers wrestle our struggling body and our own desperate, terrified BUZZES for mercy are ignored
-- A teenaged male alien uses those bifurcated alien hands to lower a BREEN HELMET into place, completing the suit
-- Green outlines ripped away, normal eyesight struggling to adjust to a blinding SPOTLIGHT without the customary helmet. While Jem’Hadar hold us tight, a VORTA reaches in, attaches the devices used on Sisko in 3x02 “The Search”
-- Back to the desert, our POV rearing back in terror as a CREATURE from a nightmare bursts through the sand, towers over the alien child, its dozen black EYES peering, FANGS dripping with venom, segmented body pulsing and writhing
-- Trok’s POV on Chairwoman Sela from 14x07 “The Summit”
-- Trok’s POV looking around the Dominion factory
-- the SOUND of the child’s laughter over it all
And finally HARD CUT to:
38 INT. DOMINION CELL
An alien we have never seen before, the one with the alien hands but now an adult - THOT TROK without his suit.
The terrified, traumatised alien is bruised and bleeding, cowering in a ball in a corner of this dark and cold metal cell. We may have seen his kind in the background of the secret Breen undercity in 14x03 “Behind the Mask”, but he is none of the already established races - he is VIRONAT.
And because he has been stripped naked of his suit, we can see exactly what he looks like. Grey skin turning to pink around the wounds. Cleft limbs split into two at the elbows and knees, each half bending in opposite directions, extra sensory organs along their lengths. A head shaped almost like an 8472’s, but with eyes and mouth like a Kelpien’s.
SLITHER-THUD. The sounds come from outside the cell. Trok jerks, looks up in terror. SLITHER-THUD. No... it can’t be.
The cell’s door slides open...
..and outside it is the same nightmare CREATURE from the desert, rearing up on its hind slithers to fill the space, SCREECHING its fury, venom dripping from its long pointed fangs, a dozen eyes pin-pointing Trok where he cowers...
Trok desperately looks around himself for anything - a weapon, a hiding place, anything - but there’s nothing.
The creature SLITHER-THUDS in through the door, blocking the only exit, leaving Trok nowhere to run...
Trok huddles deeper into the corner, curls up tighter - we PAN DOWN his alien body... over hairs standing on end the length of his cleft limbs... to a trickle of LIQUID leaking out along the metal floor. He wet himself in his terror.
A foreclaw reaches out, plucks Trok up by the scruff, YANKS him into the air, SLAMS him against the cell ceiling, lets him DROP painfully to the deck again. Bruised and weeping, the naked Trok drags his head up from the deck, and sees...
...LAAS, the Changeling, sneering down at him in disgust.
LAAS
Get up, you filthy monoform.
Trok looks around desperately - where did the creature go?
LAAS
I said get up!
Too terrified to disobey, Trok tries to get his cleft feet under him and struggle upright against the cell wall. But he is weak, and collapses back to the deck. Laas chuckles.
LAAS
Thot Trok. You are the only one
left. Well, you and the Romulan.
The others... the Jem’Hadar said
they dissolved into mist...
On the last word, Laas himself DISSOLVES into mist, his Changeling body dispersing. Trok watches, fascinated...
...until the Changeling suddenly reforms in a CLAP of thunder, the humanoid shape right in front of Trok, his face a rictus of hatred and teeth. Trok shrieks...
LAAS
Why are you here, I wonder? Surely
you can’t have imagined you could
make war on the Dominion in such
an insignificant vessel.
THOT TROK
(weak, croaky)
Founder -
LAAS
(bellows)
I am not a Founder. The Founders
are foolish and superstitious
cowards. I am Laas.
THOT TROK
What do you want from me?
LAAS
Want? From you?
The Changeling LAUGHS, the contempt in it echoing around the small metal cell as he THROWS HIS VOICE for effect.
LAAS
We will take all the information
we need from your ship. There is
nothing you can offer me... other
than perhaps some entertainment.
Entertainment...? Oh gods, that can’t be good...
LAAS
It is an awesome responsibility to
lead the Dominion... it is also a
chore. I tire of the monoforms
I’m told I need to... “protect”.
Laas crouches down, bringing his eyes level with Trok’s...
LAAS
But I have no mandate to protect
you, or the Romulan, or those to
whom you sent your signal.
THOT TROK
Laas... please... what can I do
to save my life?
LAAS
There’s nothing at all you can
do... except start running.
As the Changeling MORPHS, rising up to become the CREATURE again, looming and screeching and drooling...
...Trok finds the strength to LEAP to his feet and RUN.
39 EXT. SPACE - CARBON PLANET - ORBIT
Robinson in orbit of the dusty red planet...
40 INT. ROBINSON - CONFERENCE ROOM
Sisko stands staring out of the window at the planet below.
The non-bridge door opens and Counsellor ALTHOUSE enters.
ALTHOUSE
Captain - do you have a moment?
Sisko is really not in the mood to be bothered, but...
SISKO
What can I do for you, Counsellor?
ALTHOUSE
(gently)
You can be honest with me. You’re
already thinking this was somehow
your fault, aren’t you?
SISKO
(turns to her)
I beg your pardon?
ALTHOUSE
We’re alone, you can speak freely.
SISKO
I didn’t say you could.
ALTHOUSE
Privilege of being the counsellor.
After our encounter with the Vahni
Valtupali you seemed... refreshed.
More positive. It would be quite
normal for events like these -
(out the window)
- to cause something of a setback.
SISKO
(bitter)
A thousand people died - I think a
bad mood is only to be expected.
ALTHOUSE
Exactly. That’s what I’m saying.
What’s not normal is you blaming
yourself for these events. They
happened long before we arrived.
SISKO
I didn’t even believe the distress
call was real -
ALTHOUSE
Did you order the ship to maximum
warp the moment you got that call?
SISKO
Yes, but once I got here I delayed
the rescue out of suspicion -
ALTHOUSE
Were those reasonable precautions?
SISKO
(getting annoyed)
Yes, but -
ALTHOUSE
Was it your fault?
SISKO
Yes!
Sisko is shocked by the force of the admission Althouse tricked out of him. He turns away to look out the window again. Althouse approaches quietly, gently, but firmly...
ALTHOUSE
No. Your problems are rooted back
in the Alpha Quadrant. An accident
affecting a Romulan ship on the
other side of the galaxy, however
tragic, has nothing to do with the
Prophets, your wife or daughter.
SISKO
I wish I could believe that.
ALTHOUSE
I realise just me saying it won’t
be enough to convince you. But
at least keep it in mind, will you?
A long pause...
SISKO
I’ll try. But you’re not the one
who has to call up Admiral Akaar
and tell him that the president’s
dream of a nice, peaceful joint
exploration mission...is dead.
Althouse nods sadly - she can’t deny that. She places a hand of comfort on Sisko’s shoulder, then turns to leave.
...but before she can, the bridge door opens and ROGEIRO, CORALA, UTELN and RELKDAHZ enter. Sisko is a little taken aback at so many of his senior staff coming to see him at once - it must be serious. Althouse hovers, curious...
SISKO
Commander? Is there a problem?
ROGEIRO
Yes, sir. We’ve been continuing
our analysis of the crash site...
and some anomalies have crept up.
SISKO
Go on...
Corala goes to the large wall screen, works it a moment, and brings up more READINGS...
CORALA
I was trying to reconstruct the
last moments of the Eletrix’s life
before it crashed, by looking at
the decay rate of the high-energy
particle radiation at the site.
RELKDAHZ
That’s the kind ofradiation an
artificial singularity would leave
behindafter it was destroyed.
Sisko nods his understanding of that - carry on. Corala points out a certain wave-form reading on the screen...
CORALA
This decay rate is not at all what
we would expect based on previous
incidents with Romulan vessels.
SISKO
Couldn’t the difference be due to
changes in the technology that the
Romulans didn’t tell us about?
CORALA
Yes, it could. But when added to
certain other irregularities, it
made my tail twitch, so to speak.
SISKO
What irregularities?
Uteln takes over the story...
UTELN
I found it curious that the ship’s
destruction was so complete. So
catastrophic that there is not a
single piece of it left intact.
RELKDAHZ
Even for a warp speed crash, we’d
expect something to survive.
ROGEIRO
And the distress call. Didn’t it
sound a bit too... I don’t know...
desperate for the Romulans?
Althouse interjects herself, intrigued by the discussion...
ALTHOUSE
Surely if the Eletrix’s crew were
in genuine danger, their captain
would be anxious to call for help.
ROGEIRO
Yes, of course. But when added to
everything else...
SISKO
What’s your point, Commander?
What conclusion are you drawing
from all these... anomalies?
Rogeiro takes a moment to look around his department heads - at Uteln, Relkdahz, Corala. They all agree with him.
ROGEIRO
That that wreckage... is not of
the Eletrix at all.
Sisko tenses - the guilt and self-recrimination are turning to anger. He looks out of the window at the planet again...
SISKO
So if the Eletrix is not down on
that planet... then where the
hell is she?
Off Sisko’s glower...
41 INT. ELETRIX - BRIDGE
...to Commander T’JUL, the Romulan woman with the long hair and light eyes, sitting in her command chair on a bridge just like the one seen in 14x01 “Siren”, lights lowered to suggest it is under CLOAK. Like Sisko, she is glowering...
MAIN VIEWSCREEN
...at the sight on the viewscreen of the Ren Fejin, the Breen freighter, in orbit over Overne III. It is clearly damaged, floating seemingly powerless and adrift. Unlike before, there are no Jem’Hadar ships anywhere to be seen.
BACK TO SCENE
Seeing this, T’Jul’s normally pleasant, placid face darkens into a SNEER. This is not what they needed today...
BLACK OUT
END OF ACT THREE